My friend Sherrie and I have been going to the August "Cross Country Trail Ride" (CCTR) held in Eminence MO for over 10 years. After moving to South Carolina I've been able to make it home for the trip occasionally and have gone a total of 6 times. Sherrie's a little ahead of me with 8 trips. We each earned our coveted "5-Year Silver Buckles" and are working on the "10 Year Buckles". We've had such a good time each year that I'm always a little sad in August if it happens to be a year when I can't get back to Missouri for the ride.
I wish over the years I would have written about each of those weeks. They hold some of the special memories of my life. I decided I was definitely going to get some of the moments down on paper from this year’s trip (August 5-11, 2007). Maybe some day I will write about the funny things that happened in the past.
But, first a little about CCTR, CCTR is not trail ride where all the participants get in a long line and follow each other through the woods, though the name sort of implies that. CCTR is actually a 75 acre campground that sits along side the Jack’s Fork River in Eminence, MO. Sherrie and I were able to go to the August 2005 ride which marked CCTR’s 50th year anniversary.
To register for the ride you pay a fee to reserve your camp site (15$), a fee for each horse stall you reserve (15$/stall, we always get four stalls) and a registration fee that is amazingly less than 225$/person for the week. There are about six week long scheduled rides during the year (about one every two months) and a few special 3-4 day rides over the Fourth of July and Labor Day. We’ve always gone to the August ride. There are usually 2,500 to 3,000+ riders in August. It's one of the biggest rides for CCTR, the other being the October Ride.
All your meals are provided, so other than any snacks and drinks for the cooler at your campsite the only food you need to bring is what your horses need. And if you run out they will surely sell you hay, feed and horse bedding in the CCTR Camp Store. The people food is home cooked and served in a huge Mess Hall; breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also have a snack bar for stuff like burgers and fries and a camp restaurant if you want to purchase a meal rather than eat whatever is being served in the Mess Hall. But, the food in the Mess Hall is great and it's always amazing to me that they can serve as many people as they do in such an efficient manner.
You can tent camp or bring a camper. Each campsite has electricity and water. They have around 3000 stalls in multiple barns that are scattered around the campground conveniently located near the campsites. From our campsite we can see our horses hanging their heads out of the stalls watching us. The stalls have easy access to water (need to bring your own hose, though usually the first campers that bring their horses in the barn hook up their hose and we all share it for the week).
Our campsite is #143. We sit at the intersection of six camp roads. From our comfy chairs in front of our tent we see every kind of horse and every kind of rider go by. One of the camp farriers is across the street from us. Everybody calls him Arkansas because that's where he's from. I don't know his full name but he comes over every morning for a cup of our coffee before the Mess Hall opens. We've met lots of friends over the years that camp close to us or keep their horses in our barn. It's always fun to see them again and catch up on what's been going on.
There's an inside riding arena at the camp. During the week events such as barrel racing, kid horse shows, amateur horse shows, and horse sales take place in the evening and you are free to ride your horse in the arena anytime of the day or night. A country western band plays on a stage under the stars every night during the week. You can faintly hear the music from most places in camp. One evening during the August ride there is special entertainment by a prominent Nashville entertainer. We’ve seen George Jones, Joe Diffie, Rhett Akins and Daryle Singletary to name a few.
The horseback riding trails crisscross the Jack’s Fork and Current Rivers in the Ozark Mountains and are accessed from various river crossings and logging roads from the campground. Most of the trails are in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri’s largest national park. CCTR sponsors daily organized rides guided by CCTR trail bosses or you are free to venture out on your own. Riding along the rivers and crossing them are experiences every rider should have. The horses like playing in the cold water also. They splash it with their noses or paw at it with their feet and nothing feels better than having your horse flip his wet tail and send a spray of cold water on your back in the hot sun. Every once in awhile you see someone get bucked off in the river which is sort of entertaining if it isn't you.
When the horseback riding is done for the day, there are several beaches along the Jack’s Fork. Tubing down the river from the town of Eminence back to camp is a popular afternoon activity. We have a beach near our campsite. It is about a three city block walk. We used to go inner tubing but this year we decided to just hang out at the beach. Much less hassle than blowing up tubes then finding someone to ride with to Eminence so you can float down.
Sherrie and I came back with the best tans this year than ever. We took our beach chairs out to the middle of the river where there's a shallow place, sat in them and watched the tubers go by. The last day, some guy came up to us and said, "Haven't you two ladies been sitting here all week?" We surely had. It was so hot this year that we got up early to ride and were sitting in the cool river by one every afternoon. We have a little "red-neck" cooler I got for Sherrie this year. It's an insulated tin pail and lid stuck down in a small inner tube. We tie it to the chairs and with something cool to drink we sat there everyday till 4 or 5pm.
CCTR is a great place to vacation if you love horses and riding. The following posts are memorable moments from the August 2007 CCTR.
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